But Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) wants to make sure Chicago Police do not kill cell phone signals during the protest as a way to keep demonstrators from passing along their plans via texting and social networking sites.

Wireless signals were cut off during a crackdown on democratic protests in Egypt, as well as during protests in San Francisco last year.

“We’re putting down a marker and saying, this has happened in other places and we don’t even want it considered here,” Munoz said.

Munoz said he has no indication that police are contemplating shutting down cellphone use or social media sites. And aides to Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police Supt. Garry McCarthy say the leaders have no plans to put any restrictions on social media or other communications.

But Chicago has a checkered history of dealing with protests. Most infamously, many demonstrators, as well as reporters and passersby, were beaten by Chicago Police officers outside the Democratic National Convention in 1968, in what has been popularly called a “police riot.”

Many Chicagoans sided with police at the time of the convention, and as recently as two years ago, some retired officers held a ceremony in which those who were working during the convention were honored as “the only thing that stood between Marxist street thugs and public order.”

More than 800 protesters accused Chicago Police officers of arresting people en masse without cause, after officers allowed them to shut down Lake Shore Drive during the evening rush, then arrested them without giving them a notice to disperse or leave.